In 1935, during the wind-swept years of the Dust Bowl, three people went missing on separate occasions in the rugged canyon country of southeastern Utah, a place “wild, desolate, mysterious.” A thirteen-year old girl, Lucy Garrett, was tricked into heading west with the man who had murdered her father under the pretense of reuniting with him. At the same time, a search was underway for Dan Thrapp, a young scientist on leave from the American Museum of Natural History. Others were scouring the same region for an artist, Everett Ruess, who had disappeared into “the perfect labyrinth.” 

Intrigued by this unusual string of coincidental disappearances, Scott Thybony set out to learn what happened. His investigations took him from Island in the Sky to Skeleton Mesa, from Texas to Tucson, and from the Green River to the Red. He traced the journey of Lucy Garrett from the murder of her father to her dramatic courtroom testimony. Using the pages of an old journal he followed the route of Dan Thrapp as he crossed an expanse of wildly rugged country with a pair of outlaws. Thrapp’s story of survival in an unforgiving land is a poignant counterpoint to the fate of the artist Everett Ruess, which the New York Times has called “one of the most enduring mysteries of the modern West.” Thybony draws on extensive research and a lifetime of exploration to create a riveting story of these three lives.

Scott Thybony’s explorations of the American West have resulted in award-winning articles in magazines such as National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Outside. His books include Burntwater, chosen as a PEN Center West finalist for creative nonfiction, and the bestseller Canyon Country, from the National Geographic Society. 

Author Website

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
A Note to Readers
Prologue: Missing, Feared Lost
 
Part 1. The Bone Hunter: Dan Thrapp
The Expedition
Below the Bighorns
West of Solitude
Horsethief Ranch: Fieldnotes
Labyrinth, a Way In
Desolation Camp
Waiting for Daylight
Winter Crossing
The Needles: Fieldnotes
Circling the Blues
Far Reaches
The Backbone: Fieldnotes
Back Trail
Below the Comb
Trackings
 
Part 2. The Woodcutter’s Daughter: Lucy Garrett
The Roadside
Across the Red River
On the Run
A Gun within Reach: Fieldnotes
Empty Quarter
Skeleton Murder Case
The Shoot-Out
Haunted Canyon: Fieldnotes
The Manhunt
To the Sulphur River
 
Part 3. The Solitary Artist: Everett Ruess
Tracks Blown Over

Into the Dream
Skeleton Mesa
The Cave: Fieldnotes
Lost Mesas, Blue Mountains
Unknown. Return to Sender
The Gulch
The Search
Forbidding Canyon: Fieldnotes
Among the Ghosts
The Inscription: Fieldnotes

A Crack in the Rim: Fieldnotes
 
Epilogue: Two Lives and a Legend 
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index